PETER ABELARD (1095-1142): Called peripateticus palatinus ("our imperial paladin") by John of Salisbury (1115-1180), Abelard was born at Le Palais, near Nantes. Abelard studied the quadrivium, probably under Thierry of Chartes, and dialectics, first under Roscelin (c.1050-1120?) and then under William of Champaux (1070-1121), archdeacon of Paris. Abelard set up schools of his own at Melun, at Corbeil, and afterward at Paris. Following his retirement to Brittany because of illness, he turned to theology under the direction of Anselm of Laon (1033-1109) and started teaching it himself at Paris in 1113. After his affair with Heloise, Abelard withdrew to to the abbey of St. Denis, where he made his profession as a monk. Although he cared for regular discipline, he was too restless for the monastic life. His theological work, On the Divine Unity and Trinity, was burned at an ecclesiastical council at Soissons in 1121 at the instance of his enemies. Abelard founded the school of the Paraclete near Nogent-sur-Seine in 1125, left to become abbot of St. Gildas in Brittany, and returned to Paris to lecture at St. Genevi¸ve, where John of Salisbury became his pupil in 1136. Abelard's manner more than his matter caused him no end to debate with his fellow Scholastics. St. Bernard (1090-1153), disliking Abelard's humanism, pushed through his condemnation at a council at Sens in 1141. An appeal to the pope brought another condemnation and an injunction against lecturing. The accusation of heresy, however, was false. Abelard retired to Cluny, where the abbot, Peter the Venerable, extolled his piety, modesty and dignity and also reconciled him to St. Bernard. Abelard died at the Cluniac priory in St. Marcel-sur-Sa™ne in 1142 and was buried with Heloise.